A hole in the cedar tree

Mike came in looking angry and confused.

"There's a huge hole in the cedar by the Quonset, and I have no idea how it got there."

I pulled on my boots and and headed out to see. Yup, a BIG hole. Looked like this:

Wood chips lay scattered on the ground, and there was this gaping hole. I'd never seen anything like it, and I was baffled.

Mike and I discussed it at length, but got nowhere. We wondered at first if one of the grandkids had taken an axe to the tree, but it looked wrong. Besides, they hadn't been up to visit lately.

So I went online to try to solve the mystery. Clearly it was an animal - but what animal did this?!

Not deer. Not bears. Not raccoons. Not groundhogs, squirrels, or rats. Not wolves or coyotes. And no photos online matched what we had.

Isaac came over a few days later, and Mike took him out to see if he could identify what had done this.

"Woodpecker." Isaac is very matter of fact about these things.

"Problem is people see them pecking at their trees and they shoot them. But the woodpeckers are just after bugs. They can hear them inside the tree."

"Will it kill the tree?"

Isaac shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. People think shooting woodpeckers is a good thing. But if they didn't eat the bugs, the bugs would kill the tree and would spread and kill other trees. You'll have to wait and see."

After Isaac left, I did a search on line for woodpeckers and tree damage. Sure enough. All I know is that must have been a big woodpecker. All that damage - and we didn't hear a thing!

It's been eight months, and the tree is thriving. The hole is still there, oozing a bit of sap from time to time. I wonder if that's helping it heal. I give it a hug whenever I walk by, just in case.